The fifth-year senior from Villanova never had a doubt where she wanted to play college basketball. She wanted to be a Wildcat as far back as the third grade.

That’s not a surprise. Her father Jim and uncle Pat Kane both played baseball at Villanova. Two other uncles, Brian and Jim Murray, also are Villanova grads. Brian Murray is Villanova’s associate athletic director for business operations.

Yet Kane said there was no pressure for her to follow the family legacy.

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“My dad wanted me to have my own experience,” Kane said. “He let me make my own decision. He never said anything about coming here.”

To give you an idea of how open Jim Kane was, Devon said her dad would not have been upset if she went to Saint Joseph’s, which was interested in her.

“I got to visit St. Joe’s,” said Kane, who earned first-team All-Delco and all-state honors at Notre Dame. “(My dad) said, ‘If you like St. Joe’s, you can go there.’”

That’s blasphemy in some households in the Philadelphia area, but apparently not in the Kane house in Springfield. Besides, the Hawks really had no chance once the Wildcats got into the picture.

“I loved St. Joe’s,” Kane said. “I liked the coaches and I liked the team, but this was just a better fit for me. I visited a lot of other schools, but this was a chance to follow my dream. I couldn’t say no.”

Five years later, as the fourth-seeded Wildcats (22-7) prepare to take on fifth-seeded Marquette (20-9) in the quarterfinal round of the Big East Tournament in Chicago Sunday night (8:30), Kane knows she made the right choice academically and athletically.

She graduated last May with a degree in communications and will pick up another undergraduate degree in nursing in a little over two months. Her basketball career has worked out well, too, especially this season.

Kane earned first-team All-Big East honors earlier in the week and has a chance to become the 24th player in program history to score 1,000 points in a career. She needs 36 points to become a member of that club. She’s also 13th with 348 career assists. She leads the team in scoring (12.4), assists (4.4) and steals (36), and is tied for fourth in rebounding (3.3).

“It wouldn’t have been possible without all the other girls on our team stepping up every game,” Kane said of her all-conference selection. “It’s really a team honor, but it’s really exciting to be able to accomplish that in my senior year. It’s really awesome.”

Spoken like a true team captain, which she is, along with fellow senior and Rhodes Scholar, Jessica Wamala. Kane never has been about individual accomplishments or accolades, although there have been many. She has always been a team-first player, and this weekend is no exception. She and the Wildcats know they still have work to do if they are to get to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. Charlie Crème of ESPN.com has Villanova as one of the first four teams out in his latest version of women’s bracketology.

“We definitely need a couple of more wins,” Kane said. “The teams we played out of league didn’t pan out the way we wanted. We have a bunch of wins, but they’re not quality wins. A championship would be awesome. That’s really what we have in mind. We’re going to go out and try to get that.”

It would be the perfect ending to a career she dreamed about as far back as the third grade.

“My friends back home always make fun of me about that,” Kane said. “They say, ‘Oh, you’re living the dream,’ and they’re right. I was obsessed with Villanova because I grew up around here. I’ve always wanted to go here and I’m glad I did.”